Anyone who says violence is _never_ the answer is frankly, naive to history and power.

Violence and politics are both on a spectrum and means to the same end of asserting your will. Vom Kriege is obviously not the forefront of philosophy anymore but it’s a good place to start if anyone reading this hasn’t come across that idea and wants to learn more.

Even your non violent examples of King and Ghandi has very violent wings on the side showing society that if a resolution wasn’t achieved by peaceful ends then violence it is. Remember that the civil rights act didn’t get enough support to be passed until after King was assassinated and mass riots rose across the nation

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treetalker 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

In Savannah, Georgia, there stand historic cannon with an inscription in French (translated here): The final argument of kings.

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w0de0 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

“…and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance.

“Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to Savannah…”

- W. Tecumseh Sherman’s ultimatum to the garrison of this city, December 1864

Sherman’s March to the Sea was an apotheosis of political violence. It deliberately targeted non-military infrastructure.

How long would American slavery have persisted without the march (the war to which it belongs)?

How could non-violence have triumphed in the same crusade?

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HaZeust 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

And the Virginia flag has a graphically depicted murder with an inscription in Latin (translated here): Thus always to tyrants.

	▲	daseiner1 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		one of the rare latin phrases more famous untranslated: sic semper tyrannis (said by John Wilkes Booth as he shot Lincoln)

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JumpCrisscross 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Anyone who says violence is _never_ the answer is frankly, naive to history and power

Violence is sometimes the answer. Domestic assassinations almost never are. Kirk is about to become a martyr.

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thevillagechief 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Unfortunately headlines and memories are extremely short-lived. Not sure anyone will be talking about this in a month or two. Which is a lesson I try to remind myself whenever I take myself too seriously.

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tempodox 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

And who knows what retribution measures his death will be the justification for.

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JumpCrisscross 5 days ago | parent [-]

> what retribution measures his death will be the justification for

To be fair, crazy people will justify their craziness with anything. The problem is less what this may be used to justify and more that it creates a more-permissive environment for further political violence.

	▲	tempodox 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		But it also moves the line for what can be sold as an appropriate reaction that may not look unquestionably crazy on the surface: > And more may be to come: some GOP lawmakers and officials are signaling their readiness to punish people for their speech. Conservative activists are collecting and publicizing social media posts and profiles that they say "celebrated" his death and are calling for them to lose their jobs. https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5538476/charlie-kirk-jo... The McCarthy period, as comparison, lasted much too long and claimed many victims before it was discredited as immorally crazy.